goodbye 2009! i love you.

this year was very good to me and my honey. a few reasons that come to mind:

• i got a husband. &dan got a wife :]. we had the most incredible wedding ever.
  • and we will be together for eternity!
• i became a REGISTERED NURSE! after years of hard work &agony...
  • my dream finally came true!
• we up &moved to ALABAMA. somewhere we both have never been. and we love it!
• i lost 25 pounds.

i love new years. this year we are with dan's family [minus carly &aaron] and grandma &grandpa hickman. we are going to "first night..." the sickest most sweetest celebration in st. george! there will be ice skating, art vendors, live bands, games, food, fireworks, dancing... YEAH. i'm pretty amp'd. and did i mention i love having little sisters? i've had some much fun giving them fashion advice and dressing them up and going shopping together! they are so beautiful.

overall: this year was unnnbelievable!! ["be mine in 2009"]

we are very blessed. <3

allergies stink.

i am far too familiar with the two A's... allergies &asthma. stinky! i've had them for as long as i can remember. i keep my inhaler with me at aLL times, or i panic. especially if i am in a new environment where it might be triggered, i literally hold it in my hands when i sleep. because i know how horrible it is when i need it and can't find it/don't have it with me. i love puppies so much & it hurts me when i can't hug and kiss and play with them! they must think i hate them.

exhibit a:

our little princess tubby is a lhapsa-poo [1/2 lahpsa apsa, 1/2 poodle] and i love her so much but she makes me sniffle, sneeze, &wheeze. so i can't give her loves and it's so sad. because i do love her!

exhibit b:

every time before i come to vegas to visit home my mom gets the carpets cleaned, and has tubby shaved so she has hardly any hair at all... i still take an antihistamine every morning, sleep with a HEPA fan, &keep my inhaler in my pocket! but it definitely helps.

exhibit c:

i am at dan's grandparent's house visiting for a week &dan's parents brought their little dog chloe, who i am allergic to as well! so they have to keep the poor little dog secluded in the bedroom or in the backyard. and she probably can't figure out why. i can't even sit by aunt barb because she has a cat &the cat fur is on her!

i am currently being treated by a chiropractor here in st. george with NAET [Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques] for my allergies to cats, dogs, and animal dander in general. they basically do some tests by testing my muscle strength in my arm while holding vials with the genetic coding of cats and dogs in my other hand... then they tape the vial to my skin right underneath my collarbone for 24 hours &supposedly i am healed. i might be a little skeptical but figured i'd give it a try.

so that's that! we'll see how it goes. wish me luck :].

lindsey duhon.

i used to make lindsey play a song for me every time before i went to the testing center to take a test. &she always helped &made me have the animo i needed. we, her friends, also like to pressure her every time we are together or in front of a group of people &make her plays songs in front of all of us. and because she is so beautiful and in love and TALENTED [!!!!]. i need to get her out on the wowowo so everyone can learn of her beautiful skills. [she wrote the songs too].

click & listen!

MERRYandBRIGHT.

we've had a wonderful christmas! lots of games [ticket to ride, cranium], movies [star wars, star trek, while you were sleeping], delicious food [sushi, mimi's cafe, caramel &chocolate covered pretzels, white chocolate popcorn, toffee, ham, cheesy potatoes, mom's homemade rolls], frisbee, bonky ball, basketball, shopping [trying on clothes :], even a fun girls day out shopping and lunch with my mom!

dan and i are sooo blessed! we have the most loving and wonderful families on both sides... who love us &we love them! it has been quite a trip coming out here and being able to relax, go shopping, wrap presents, etc. christmas day started out with me running into the family room [with dan &jared walking behind] and yelling "SANTA DID COME!," opening our stockings [dan and i graduated to our "married stocking" which was probably 4 feet tall. pretty fancy! dan got his fun &played call of duty for a few hours. we watched the blindside, ate some DELicious food, and went bowling with the mayorgas [jared took the cake].

we were partying &dancing at the bowling alley:].

i love my daddy! after he removed dan's mole.

she's our baby.

there is some serious CRANIUMing goin on right here.

rekindled friendship with clark! i missed him.

me &my favorite brother bowling!

why i love home.

1. my dad makes hot n naughties for us every night. unbeatable. &he is so proud of them :]. &should be.

2. having TV with all sorts of fancy cable &starz and movies and rewinding &pausing!! it's so much fun.

3. wearing shorts &a t-shirt on december 15th.

4. trying on quite the funnest& fanciest outfits at urban outfitters with my husband/prancing around mandalay bay/luxor.

5. the winter wonderland my house is! it's so decked out. in a classy &beautiful way. we never want to leave the living room.

6. a fridge full of FRUIT! i'm so content. not to mention the box of chocolates under the fridge.

7. having the funnest/cutest guy to hang out with me all the time. we played bocce ball &frisbee at the park today.

8. having the FUNNIEST/best/most hilarious/cutest parents this world has ever seen.

9. the "i'm on holiday" shirt my mom bought me! i'm sooo on holiday. :]

10. love. there is lots of it here. :] &jared gets here on THURSDAY!! we can't wait!

"because everything should taste like BACON."

before i get too ahead of myself with christmas... i just have to write a little bit about our fun roadtrip out! andrew batteen came out with us. that was great. we stayed at his sister's house in dallas the first night. woke up &had a great breakfast &stayed with dan's cousins jason &kristal in joseph city, arizona on night 2. it was soo nice having nice beds to sleep in both nights!

just a few points worth sharing:

• we passed at least ten cracker barrels. &dan would comment on them EVERY single time. we even stopped on our long day. we played that funny game the entire time &i was an EG-NO-RA-MOOZ every time. so sad. & andrew beat it!
• andrew's iTouch basically saved us. we loved the football game, paper toss, &my favorite: the waterslide game [i was giggling &screaming out in glEE... "it's so realistic!"
• driving through flagstaff &climbing so high in elevation. we drove through snow &i MADE us all sing "white christmas" together. it was hilarious.
• my indian friends at hoover dam. i took their pictures for them and thought they were arabic & was speaking to them in arabic. OOPS.
• TEXAS. longest, emptiest state. we LITERALLY had to play frogger with tumbleweeds. in real life. they had SPITS of all kinds there. we had BBQ wings, ranch, dill, classic davids, and BACON. we filled our cups up over &over again! not to mention the store we passed entitled "Cute Texas Crafts"
• joseph city, arizona. SMALLEST town i have ever been in [besides passing though]. right off route 66. so cute &mostly just how life should be. we had so much fun playing with the kids &holding the BABY!! [kristal: "are you pregnant yet?"]

yes. chunky, mississippi.

let the TRIP BEGIN!

were we REALLY that happy??! YES.

my first encounter with cracker barrel rocking chairs.

he wants to be a daddy.

dan & his cousin jason mulder... BOTH: 163 pounds, 5'11, 10.5-11 size shoe... 32-34 pants... NO BIG DEAL.

he got into the fruit smoothie :]

our best soldier friends! we were speeding up &slowing own for 10 minutes so we could talk to each other &relay messages. then stopped at the same rest stop so we could chat.

the peg game. we were so into it.

look at that cute family.

the joys of being a child.

never too old for a bottle.

flagstaff.

hoover dam!

so cute!

sorry husband.

two nights ago i accidently almost killed dan in his sleep. :[ i'll start from the beginning.

our kitchen is extremely space-efficient. just because it hardly uses any. so whenever i cook i have to use the stove-tops as counter space. so the other night on my way out of the kitchen i moved the rice cooker [full of rice that we were going to have later] just to tidy up a little bit. i moved onto the back burner so it would be a little more out of the way. so i ran over to be with dan for a few minutes waiting for the missionaries to come. ten minutes later we hear a knock at the door &run out to get it when we notice our entire front room &kitchen are filled with gross SMOKE!! [our smoke detector must be a little faulty.] dan went in the kitchen &found that the rice cooker was getting cooked. he turned the dial off [that i had accidently turned when i moved it] and we started to air it out. the smoke was making our eyes and throats burn. not pleasant. so dan went out teaching with the missionaries and i made dinner. all is well while airing out the apartment. they came back. had shrimp fettucine, & dan cleaned the kitchen.

4:00 am rolls around &i am awoken in my sleep to my husband calling my name. he was having horrible stomach pains & couldn't breathe. so i brought him my inhaler and slowly nursed him back to health. we closed our bedroom door, opened the window, and set the HEPA fan right next to his face so he could clear out his lungs. he was getting symptoms from smoke inhalation, which can quickly kill you might i add. UGHH!!!! what can i even say. good thing he's better.

moral of the story: be careful with plastic & stove tops. check those dials twice, maybe even three times. :]

vision of the south.

one of the best parts about living in the south is that missionary work is much more available here! :] since we have been job/school-less for a while, we have had the privilege of spending a lot of time with the missionaries and having discussions and lessons at our house, helping the missionaries, and getting to know the investigators really well.

we have been able to watch meme and her son michael throughout the whole process of their conversion. it has been so amazing, especially for me to watch, since i didn't get to have all those experiences on a mission. they are amazing people who have so much faith through so many trials. they got baptized last weekend and i got to speak at the baptism! this picture was taken after the baptism.

she looks so beautiful! &look at those handsome boys. :]]

east of eden.

Fully satisfied. I finished East of Eden by John Steinbeck a couple weeks ago and was... fully satisfied! What a beautiful book, that i would highly recommend to anyone out there with any hankering to pick up a good book.

This is the dashing picture of Mr. Steinbeck that was on the back cover of my book so it holds a special place in my heart. I think he's fabulous. How he can write a book so complete and connected and maybe... heart wrenching is beyond my realm of understanding. I think I can say that only because my own heart was wrenched a few times. There were times I would have to stop &just think about what he had written because it was so thought-provoking. And times when I would read 4x as much as I had planned. Good thing it's long. :]]